Quiz: The Social Contract

All 31 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Of natural, elective and hereditary aristocracy, which does Rousseau call the best government?

   Natural aristocracy None of them; all three are equally bad Elective aristocracy Hereditary aristocracy
2. 2. Between whom, according to Rousseau, is war a relation?

   State and State Peoples of different religions Man and man Princes and their own subjects
3. 3. After “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains”, which question does Rousseau say he can answer?

   How the chains can be broken How the change came about Who first forged the chains What can make the change legitimate
4. 4. To whom does Rousseau compare theorists who divide sovereignty?

   Architects who build a palace without laying its foundations Surgeons who amputate a healthy limb to save the rest of the body Alchemists who try to make gold Japanese jugglers who dismember a child and revive it
5. 5. Which European country does Rousseau call still capable of being given laws?

   Corsica Venice Poland Genoa
6. 6. What does Rousseau say the law of majority voting presupposes?

   Unanimity, on one occasion at least A written constitution The consent of the clergy A hereditary monarch to enforce it
7. 7. How should the periodic assemblies of the people open, according to Book III, chapter 18?

   With separate votes on keeping the present form of government and its present holders With an oath of loyalty to the prince With the election of a dictator for the session With the reading of all the laws passed since the last assembly, for the people’s approval
8. 8. Being “forced to be free” secures the citizen against what?

   All personal dependence Foreign invasion Poverty Religious persecution
9. 9. Why did the rich dominate the Roman Comitia Centuriata?

   Votes were sold openly at auction, and only the rich could afford to buy them The first class held a majority of the 193 centuries, and voting went by centuries The senate chose the presiding magistrates, who counted the votes as they wished Only the rich could attend, and the poor were kept out of the Campus by the lictors
10. 10. What does Rousseau say of the people of England?

    It is the freest people in Europe because of its parliament It has never been free since the Norman Conquest It is free only during the election of members of parliament It is free because its king is bound by a contract
11. 11. What limits civil liberty, according to Rousseau?

    The general will The will of the prince The strength of the individual The right of the first occupier
12. 12. What does Rousseau say about Machiavelli’s Prince?

    It proves that monarchy is the best form of government for large and wealthy states It was written to flatter the Pope It is a manual of tyranny that every free people should ban from its schools and libraries He professed to teach kings but really taught the people: the book of Republicans
13. 13. How does Rousseau distinguish a tyrant from a despot?

    The tyrant is chosen by the people for a term; the despot inherits his power from his father There is no real difference; Rousseau uses the two words as synonyms for any usurper The tyrant usurps royal authority to govern by the laws; the despot sets himself above the laws The tyrant governs cruelly in his own interest; the despot governs mildly for the public good
14. 14. What did Lycurgus do, according to Rousseau, when he gave laws to his country?

    He claimed descent from the gods He began by resigning the throne He made himself perpetual dictator He had the laws approved by the Delphic oracle
15. 15. Why, according to Rousseau, does total alienation to the community not make anyone a subject of another?

    In giving himself to all, each gives himself to nobody Only goods, not persons, are alienated The prince swears at his coronation to respect all natural rights The community promises to return everything after a fixed term
16. 16. What is the one thing Rousseau’s dictator cannot do?

    Silence the sovereign authority Command the army Make laws Suspend the courts
17. 17. What is Rousseau’s main charge against Peter the Great?

    He tried to make Germans or Englishmen instead of Russians He refused all foreign influence He gave Russia laws before it had a settled people He divided sovereignty among his ministers
18. 18. What two objects does Rousseau name as the end of every system of legislation?

    Order and property Security and prosperity Liberty and equality Virtue and religion
19. 19. What surprising view does Rousseau take of enforced labour and taxes?

    Enforced labour is acceptable only in monarchies and despotisms Taxes are the surest sign of a free and prosperous people Enforced labour is less opposed to liberty than taxes Both are equally incompatible with any legitimate State
20. 20. According to Book III, chapter 8, which kind of State suits democracy?

    States that are small and poor Any State, whatever its size or wealth Wealthy nations with fertile soil Large States in hot climates
21. 21. How does Rousseau end his chapter on democracy?

    A people of gods would govern itself democratically; such a government is not for men Democracy is the only legitimate form of government, and every people should adopt it at once Democracy is suited only to large and wealthy nations Democracy is the worst of governments and should be abolished
22. 22. How does Rousseau describe The Social Contract in his foreword?

    As a commentary on Grotius’s treatise As a summary of lectures given in Geneva Part of a longer, abandoned work As his answer to a prize question set by an academy
23. 23. According to Rousseau, what made the first slaves?

    Natural inferiority Force Defeat in a just war Debt
24. 24. What, according to Rousseau, is the only contract in the State?

    The act of association itself The treaty by which the State is recognised by its neighbours The contract between the legislature and the executive The contract between the people and its rulers
25. 25. What does Rousseau give as the surest sign of a good government?

    The amount of money in circulation and the wealth of its treasury The severity and certainty of its punishments The size and discipline of its standing army Its population growing without outside aid
26. 26. Which example does Rousseau use to show that force creates no duty to obey?

    A shepherd guarding his flock A ship’s captain in a storm A brigand with a pistol at the edge of a wood A father and his grown-up children
27. 27. Whose act of “taking possession” does Rousseau ridicule in the chapter on property?

    Cortés’s, after the conquest of Mexico Magellan’s, in the Philippines Núñez Balboa’s, for the crown of Castile Columbus’s, on landing in the Indies
28. 28. What is the single negative dogma of Rousseau’s civil religion?

    Belief in miracles Obedience to a foreign pontiff Atheism Intolerance
29. 29. When the opinion contrary to his own prevails in the assembly, what does that prove about the outvoted citizen, according to Rousseau?

    That he was mistaken about what the general will was That he has been deprived of his liberty That he is entitled to leave the State That the majority has broken the social compact
30. 30. How does the will of all differ from the general will?

    A sum of particular wills, weighing private interest It is expressed through elected representatives in a parliament It belongs to the government rather than to the people assembled as sovereign It requires a unanimous vote of every citizen in the assembly
31. 31. How does Rousseau define government in Book III?

    An intermediate body between subjects and Sovereign, charged with executing the laws The assembly of all citizens when it makes the laws A contract by which the people submits to its rulers The Sovereign itself acting through representatives elected for fixed terms